Between affordable high quality wine and this, Argentina is losing its reputation as the land of revolving dictatorships and is increasingly seen as a stable and progressive democracy in Latin America. Effective today, gays and lesbians will be able to serve openly in the Argentinian armed forces, making our dreams of a real-life musical version of Evita that much closer to reality. That’s right America, Argentina is a more just and equal place than the U.S.

“In Argentina, starting today, a new military justice system goes into effect which decriminalizes homosexuality among uniformed members, eliminates the death penalty, and moves crimes committed exclusively within the military to the public justice sphere [previously there had been a separate military court system].

Under the old system, gays were not permitted to have access to a military career, at the same time as this sexual orientation was penalized. And, while there are no publicly known former sanctions against gays under the old policy, this does not mean that men and women with that sexual orientation have not been disciplined, and perhaps separated from the armed forces under a mantle of silence.

In fact, with this new system, gay men or lesbian women who wish to train in the forces should encounter no impediment, nor any military retaliation areas.”

Same comment after the Bolivia deal…now they just need to be able to buy food. I’m South American by the way, and while all this new openess is wonderfull to think that “America is so behind the times like by 10 years” is to have a very narrow view of the overall picture. Most gays in South America that I know are still plotting ways to get to work in the US or Europe, recession and all.

In Canada, gays and lesbians have been able to serve openly in the military since 1992. In last year’s Gay Pride parade in Toronto, a group of soldiers marched in uniform. And the military even set up a recruitment booth at Pride events. So yes, America has some catching up to do.